1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a motor system controller and, more particularly, to a motor system controller and a method for operating the controller wherein values of user-selected parameters associated with the motor system controller are sequentially displayed without further user intervention.
2. Disclosure of Related Art
It is common in industry today to have a motor system including a controller for generating control signals, a driver for producing excitation signals responsive to the control signals, and a motor responsive to the excitation signals. The controller typically includes a control circuit for generating the control signals, a memory, and a user interface. The user interface allows a user to control generation of the control signals and monitor the performance of the motor system by accessing, modifying, selecting, and displaying, various motor system parameter values or commands.
A conventional user interface for a motor system controller includes an operator keypad and a display. By using the operator keypad, a user can access and/or modify the values of various motor system parameters associated with the motor system controller. Each time a parameter is accessed, its value is displayed on the display of the user interface. The display in a typical user interface is fairly small. Therefore, only one or two parameter values can generally be displayed at one time. When a user wishes to view additional parameter values, the user must actuate the keypad of the interface to step through or otherwise select the various parameter values. Typically, the set of parameter values is quite large. Therefore, the user is required to spend a great deal of time and effort to display the parameter values of interest to the user. This is undesirable when the user wishes to repeatedly view a number of parameter values over a period of time-for example, to see changes as the motor operates. The continuous user input required to access and display those parameter values is burdensome. Moreover, the interval between successive displays of any one parameter value is dependent upon the actuation of keys by the user.
There is thus a need for a motor system controller and a method of operating the controller that will minimize or eliminate one or more of the above-mentioned deficiencies.